Blantyre men win lottery jackpot

Oct 1 2009 by Chris Clements, Hamilton Advertiser

NINE lucky drinkers at a Blantyre boozer were celebrating this week after their syndicate scooped the jackpot on Saturday’s National Lottery.

The Doon Inn regulars, all of whom live in the town, won more than £4.5m between them, meaning they all have bagged around £500,000 each.

The winners include driving instructor Bobby McLauchlan (51), sales manager Iain Macdonald (55), brothers Sandy (66) and William Morton (61), and 49-year-old Jim McGrail. The other four wished to remain anonymous.

Most of the group were in the Broompark Road pub when the lottery draw was announced, with Sandy writing the numbers on a beer mat.

The winning numbers were 03, 05, 17, 32, 40 and 43.

At first, the group thought they had matched five numbers correctly, but realised their error when another punter pointed out that the number 32 had been drawn, and not 22 as they had thought.

Bobby said: “A woman in the pub asked to see our ticket and pointed out that we had the number 32 and had in fact won the jackpot. The whole pub erupted.”

The group had only recently stopped playing their usual numbers and opted for Lucky Dips.

The staggering win means a lot for Jim McGrail, who was recently made unemployed during the massive job cuts at Freescale in East Kilbride.

He explained: “After 23 years, I was made redundant around three months ago. But now this has happened, you never know what is around the corner.

“I was in the house when the lottery draw was made, and I took a phone call from the guys at the pub. They told me I had won around half a million pounds.

“I couldn’t really believe it, and I had to hear it from all the other syndicate members before it properly sank in. It’s still sinking in!”

Jim, who is single, has been playing in the Doon Inn syndicate for 15 years and was one of the original members.

He explained that he plans to spend the money on his passion for motorbikes.

“This will take away a lot of financial worries for me. But I’m planning on staying in Blantyre, and I don’t think the money will change me as a person,” he said.

Grandfather-of-five William was also in the pub, but admits he cannot remember whether he bought the punters a round of drinks due the excitement of the night.

“I haven’t a clue if I bought them all drinks, but I think I did. It was surreal,” he said.

“I have no idea how I’m going to spend the money yet. I’m just going to enjoy it.

“It is something I’ve always dreamed about, and now I can look forward to enjoying life.

“I’m going to continue drinking in the Doon Inn. It’s a great pub.”

William currently works as greenkeeper at Blantyre Bowling Club. He said: “I’ve only been there a year, but if I was to leave I would have to take my time and show someone else how to do the job first.”

After a hectic press conference on Tuesday at a plush hotel in Glasgow, Iain returned to the Doon Inn for a drink.

The father-of-two told the Advertiser: “This is more than crazy. It’s just surreal.

“We kept thinking we had got it wrong, it was the wrong date and whatever.

“But now we’ve been talking to the press, it has started to sink in. I watched a wee bit about us on the television earlier, and we’re all feeling a bit tired now and looking forward to a few quiet nights.”